Guthman 1

Kayelynn Guthman
Ms. Albrecht
Advanced Composition
October 29, 2014
Non-violence Effectiveness
The term civil disobedience is most famously known from Henry David Thoreaus essay
with the same title. There have been many non-violent movements around the world and some
have worked and some havent. Civil disobedience has been used in many ways. Most famously,
in the United States, during the Civil Rights Movement. Most of the people who use nonviolence use it because they firmly believe that violence isnt the answer. Unfortunately, while
non-violent protesters mean no harm, they often get violence in return. Therefore, the
effectiveness of non-violence, can be and has been questioned on many occasions. Rosa Parks
never once questioned it. And she stood rooted in her beliefs of racial equality. So did nonviolence work during the Civil Rights Movement?
Starting at the beginning, the root of African American discrimination in the United
States started when Africans were first brought to the New World. They were viewed as
property; as something less than people. Slaves were bought and sold like livestock without a
second thought. With the creation of the first U.S. Constitution, slaves were counted as three
fifths of a person when referring to population. But they werent given a vote. Any kind of vote.
Even after the Civil War, when slaves were freed, they didnt have a vote or a say in anything.

Guthman 2
Entering the twentieth century, blacks and whites were separated in everything. Schools
were separated, restaurants, even drinking water. Southern laws even forced blacks to sit in the
rear of buses and to surrender their seat if a white person wanted to sit down (Uschan 54-55).
African Americans couldnt get good jobs because they couldnt get good schooling. Black
public schools usually only went through elementary levels and parents had to send their children
to special schools if they wanted their children to have a higher education. Those schools were
normally very expensive. And there were very few black colleges anywhere in the U.S.
Rosa Parks grew up right in the middle of this time period. While almost everyone knows
Rosa Parks as the woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus and was punished for it, not
many people realize how much she was involved in the Civil Rights Movement. From a young
age, she experienced the persecution. Her father traveled all of the time because he couldnt find
work. She lived mostly with her grandparents and her younger brother while her mother taught at
a school close by. She heard many stories from her grandparents who had been slaves
themselves. Her grandfather was the son of a slave and her master.
While still very young, she was taught to be submissive to white people and do what they
asked. As she became aware of the terms of white supremacy, the fact that acting happy
produced better treatment stuck in her throat (Theoharis 6). She was never content with just
standing there and taking it. And she often stood up for herself and her younger brother. Reading
from a young age introduced her to black history which impacted her more than anything. She
believed that black people could rebel against whites just like they had in the past.
Continuing her education at Mrs. Whites Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, she
learned basic home making skills including sewing which helped her obtain a job later in life.
She finished junior high school at Booker T. Washington Junior High but didnt get her high

Guthman 3
school diploma until she was twenty years old at the insistence of her husband, Raymond Parks.
Both she and Raymond were involved in the Montgomery branch of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This association was the first big connection she
had with the Civil Rights Movement.
Before Rosa Parks well-known contribution, the Civil Rights Movement wasnt that
much of a movement yet. President Truman sign[ed] Executive Order 9981 in 1948 which
states, It is hereby declared that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all
persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin (Borgna
and Haney). There had been a few Supreme Court cases and rulings but they were almost
completely ignored by white citizens. The murderers of fourteen year old Emmett Till were
acquitted which raised protests and riots.
Everyone knows the story of Rosa Parks but no one really knows that there was someone
before her. A fifteen year old girl, Claudette Colvin, was arrested in Montgomery for the same
act (Montgomery Bus Boycott). However, black leaders in the city found out that she was
pregnant and thought that she wouldnt be a good symbol. This implies that they were looking
for someone to rally behind.
They didnt find that person until Rosa Parks came along. While traveling home from
work, her bus driver approached her and two others in the black section of the bus and asked
them to move. The others complied but she refused. She was arrested and fined ten dollars and
four dollars in case fees. With her connection with the NAACP, she called on E.D. Nixon who
paid her bail and decided that she would be a good face for a legal challenge of the segregated
bus laws. The Womens Political Council (WPC), a group of black women working for civil

Guthman 4
rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5
(Montgomery Bus Boycott) which was the day that Rosa Parks was to be tried in court.
The news spread and black leaders across Montgomery started lending their support. On
December 5, 1955, about forty thousand African American bus riders didnt ride the bus. This
boycott lasted for over a year three hundred and eighty one days. The Supreme Court finally
ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional according to the Fourteenth Amendment and
on December 21, 1956, the Montgomery buses were integrated.
With the integration, as with the Civil Rights Movement in general, there was resistance
and even violence. The Ku Klux Klan was the most prominent white supremacist group. In
regards to the bus integration, there were seven Klan members that were arrested for bombing
prominent black leaders houses and churches. The arrests stopped the violence on the buses.
However, as the movement picked up in pace, a lot of violence took place. Protesters
were attacked while engaging in sit-ins and marches. When nine African Americans tried to
enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, President Eisenhower had to send federal
troops and the National Guard to intervene (Borgna and Haney). The groups of students who
were dubbed the freedom riders were attacked by mobs while they were testing integration
laws. When James Meredith became the first black student at the University of Mississippi,
President Kennedy sent five thousand federal troops to take care of the violence and riots that
erupted from the event.
Martin Luther King, who had become a figurehead of the Movement, was arrested on
several occasions for peaceful protesting. Along with many of his followers, he was victimized

Guthman 5
and beaten. While many protesters took a vow of non-violence, those who were against them
didnt.
Julia Bacha once said that [n]on-violence is not glamorous, and you dont see the effect
right away. Such was the case with the Civil Rights Movement. Over almost twenty years,
many Civil Rights Acts were signed by several presidents. It wasnt until about 1968 that things
started calming down. That year Martin Luther King was killed on April 4th and many of the
riots were stopped or largely downscaled. Many of the charges against white people for crimes
against blacks werent closed until the eighties or nineties.
One can argue that the Civil Rights Movement never really ended. That it has been going
on for almost four hundred years; ever since the first Africans were brought to the New World.
African American rights have changed a lot since then blacks can vote and segregation is all
but extinct and never thought of but some things never change. The first African American
president wasnt elected until 2008. There is still a large majority of white people in Congress. A
Supreme Court ruling in 2013 was about racial discrimination. Forty five years after Martin
Luther King was killed.
So was the Civil Rights movement effective? One can argue that it was. The time that
historians have labeled the Civil Rights Movement was quite successful. Many rights were
given to African Americans that they had not previously had. And the protestors did not show
violence, in any way, although they were confronted with it many times. In every definition of
civil disobedience to accomplish something, it worked. But maybe, this Movement hasnt quite
ended. What if its still going on? If every little act of civil disobedience counts, it is. The Civil
Rights Movement hasnt ended. Not yet.

Guthman 6
Bibliography
Brunner, Borgna and Elissa Haney. Civil Rights Timeline. Infoplease.com. n.d. Web. 21
October 2014. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#Wn>.
History.com Staff. Montgomery Bus Boycott. History.com. 2010. A+E Networks. Web. 21
October 2014. <http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott>.
Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Boston: Beacon Press, 2013. Print.
Uschan, Michael V. Protests and Riots. Farmington Hills: Lucent Books, 2010. Print.